Paul Larkin

Alnwick's Lucy Bronze is a dark horse in the race to become this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year if Twitter is anything to go by.

While bookmakers place the England and Manchester City footballer as an outsider for the title, it is a different story on social media.

The former Duchess's High School pupil and Alnwick Town Juniors player was named in the shortlist for the prestigious award when it was announced on Monday.

She is in elite company, with other sporting superstars among the final dozen contenders including new heavyweight boxing champion of the world Tyson Fury; Andy Murray, who helped Great Britain win the Davis Cup at the weekend; and Mo Farah, the most decorated British athlete in the sport's history.

A BBC tweet greeted the announcement of each of the shortlisted finalists and fans have since retweeted or liked each one. If the Twitter retweets and likes are added together to give an indication of the popularity of each candidate, Lucy Bronze is in second place behind Tyson Fury.

The winner of the award is actually decided by a public vote by telephone or online on the night of the awards ceremony, which is Sunday, December 20. To vote online you will need to register with BBC iD.